Department of

Biology

Dr. Hannah Henson

Assistant Professor of Biology
131 White Hall
Union University
Jackson, Tennessee 38305
(731) 661-5520
hhenson@uu.edu

Education

• Ph.D. in Cancer and Developmental Biology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center
• B.S. in Biology, Union University

Previous Experience

• Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Kentucky 2014-2016

Courses commonly taught

• BIO 112: Principles of Biology
• BIO 300: Pathophysiology
• BIO 316: Physiology
• Bio 317: Developmental Biology

Research/Scholarship Interests

• Zebrafish models of hyperglycemia
• Brain barrier development
• Biofilm formation in zebrafish

Undergraduate research projects

• Rachel McCann: “Effects of Elevated Glucose Exposure on Choroid Plexus Development in Zebrafish”
• Micah Bullock: “The Effects of Glucose on Clusterin Expression in the Choroid Plexus of Zebrafish”
• Katie Kelly: “The Effects of Hyperglycemia on Claudin-5 Expression in the Developing Choroid Plexus”
• Matt Tucker: “Investigating the Effects of Staphylococcus epidermidis on MMP-14 Expression in Zebrafish Retinas”
• Gray Hamilton: “Measuring Glucose Uptake in Zebrafish Embryos”
• Lauren Alldredge: “Glucose Uptake by Zebrafish and its Effect on the Morphological Development of the Choroid Plexus”
• Amanda Ebert: Determining the Leakiness of the Choroid Plexus in Zebrafish due to Hyperglycemia
• Meagan Clark: “Investigating the Effects of Pseudomonas fluorescens on Intestinal Barrier Formation”
• Ashley Scott: “Investigating the Effects of Pseudomonas fluorescens on Intestinal Barrier Formation Using Fluorescent Tracers”
• Taylor Wardlaw: “Generating a Transgenic Zebrafish Line to Characterize the Role of Clusterin in Cancer, Neurodegeneration, and the Inflammatory Response”

Scholarship (Recent Publications)

• Umans, R., Henson, H., Mu, Z., Parupalli, C., Ju, B., Peters, J., Lanham, K., Plavicki, J., and Taylor, M. (2017) CNS angiogenesis and barriergenesis occur simultaneously. (Developmental Biology).
• Ju, B., Chen, W., Orr, B.A., Spitsbergen, J.M., Jia, S., Eden, C.J., Henson, H.E., and Taylor, M.R. (2015) Oncogenic KRAS promotes malignant brain tumors in zebrafish (Molecular Cancer).
• Henson, H.E.,± Parupalli, C.,± Ju, B., and Taylor, M.R. (2014) Functional and genetic analysis of choroid plexus development in zebrafish (Frontiers in Neuroscience). (±co-first authors).
• Ju, B., Chen, W., Spitsbergen, J., Lu, J., Vogel, P., Peters, J.L., Wang, M., Henson, H.E., Jia, S., Parupalli, C., and Taylor, M.R. (2014) Activation of Sonic hedgehog signaling in neural progenitor cells promotes glioma development in the zebrafish optic pathway (Oncogenesis).
• Jia, S., Muto, A., Orisme, W., Henson, H.E., Parupalli, C., Ju, B., Baier, H., and Taylor, M.R. (2014) wait until dark encodes a zebrafish L-type calcium channel required for cone photoreceptor function and synaptic ribbon formation (Human Molecular Genetics).